Sandy
by katzsoa
Summary: Someone new comes to live among the toys in Bonnie's bedroom. Is it a new friend, or a love rival for Buzz? POST-TOY STORY 3! That means SPOILERS!
1. The New Guy

**A.N.: I'm going to warn you again: POST-TOY STORY 3! That means SPOILERS!**

"Woody! Woody!" Jessie cried as she ran into his office.

"What is it, Jessie?" the sheriff asked.

"It's Doctor Pork Chop!" the cowgirl explained. "He's broken out of prison and headed up the mountain!"

"Who knows what kind of horrible thing he could be planning?" Woody wondered aloud. "Let's go, Jessie!"

They ran outside and jumped on the waiting horse.

"Ride like the wind, Bullseye!" Woody said. Bullseye sped off towards the mountain.

When they reached the mountain, there was no sign of Doctor Pork Chop.

"Let's ask one of the forest critters," Jessie suggested, walking over to a unicorn and a hedgehog. "Buttercup, have you seen Doctor Pork Chop?"

"He ran by just a little while ago," Buttercup the unicorn replied. "He yelled at us to stay away from the mountain's peak."

"So, that's where we're going!" Woody decided.

"You'll never climb the mountain in time," Mr. Pricklepants the hedgehog said. "It's way too steep!"

"Who said anything about climbing?" a voice from behind said.

Everyone turned around in surprise. "Buzz Lightyear!" they exclaimed.

Buzz activated his wings and grabbed Woody and Jessie's hands.

"To infinity…and beyond!" Buzz shouted. The trio flew up to the top of the mountain, landing right in front of Doctor Pork Chop.

"Reach for the sky!" Woody demanded. Doctor Pork Chop just laughed.

"You can't hurt me!" he cackled. "I have back-up!"

Suddenly, a purple-haired figure appeared next to Doctor Pork Chop.

"It's the witch!" Jessie cried. The witch began to chant a spell.

"I can't move!" Buzz exclaimed.

"She's using her evil magic on us!" Woody realized. "Fight it, guys!"

"Now, there's nothing that can stop me from carrying out my evil plan!" Doctor Pork Chop said, picking up a remote with a big, red button on it.

"As soon as I push this button," he explained. "The side of the mountain will explode, and a billion tons of lava will spill from the giant bucket onto the town!"

Jessie glanced down at the town far below in horror, then up at the giant bucket.

"You can't do this!" she cried. "There are innocent people down there!"

"I know!" Pork Chop laughed, moving to push the button.

"Woody, think of something, fast!" Buzz said.

Woody had an idea.

"Quick, Buzz, get—!"

XXX

"Bonnie!" Mom called. "Sophie's here to see you!"

"Coming, Mom!" Bonnie said, setting Woody and Buzz down on the "mountain" and running out of her bedroom and down the stairs.

A few moments later, Buzz sat up.

"So, what was I supposed to get?" he asked.

Woody laughed. "I have _no _idea. Bonnie gets more creative every day, don't you think?"

The bedroom quickly came alive as the rest of the toys started to move around.

"Can I come out now?" Rex called up from the floor. "I just really don't like the idea of getting lava dumped on me."

"The bucket's _empty, _Rex," Hamm said, rolling his eyes. "Where would Bonnie get a bucket of lava, anyway?"

"That was fantastic acting," Mr. Pricklepants said to Dolly as she dropped down off the bed.

"Thanks," she said. "It's interesting playing evil henchman instead of primary villain."

Jessie jumped to the floor near Bullseye. "Sorry that we left you behind," she said. "I guess Airline Buzz can only take two passengers at a time." Bullseye licked her face, having no hard feelings.

"Has anyone seen my ear?" Mrs. Potato Head called from the toy box.

"Here it is!" said Trixie, retrieving it from under the bed.

"…can I keep it in my room?" Bonnie's voice sounded from the staircase. There were footsteps.

"Places!" Mr. Pricklepants called. Everyone ran back to their previous spot. Buzz reached over the edge of the bed to pull Jessie up, and they lay back on the bed in their inanimate state.

"Of course, dear," Mom said as she entered the room. "But you'll have to be careful. It's not a toy, and it looks fragile."

"I'll be careful!" Bonnie promised. "I like it. It's pretty!"

"Now, what do you say to Sophie?" Mom prompted.

Bonnie gave her preteen neighbor a hug. "Thank you, Sophie!"

"You're welcome," Sophie laughed. "Consider it an early birthday present."

"Did you really make it yourself?" Bonnie asked.

"Well, I painted it."

"I'll put it on your dresser, okay?" Mom said.

"Okay!"

Mom set the object in her hands down on the table. Jessie raised her head slightly, trying to see what it was. She got a glimpse of something tan before Mom turned around and she lay limp again.

"My parents would like to know if you'd want to come over for dinner," Sophie said.

"That sounds lovely!" Mom said. "What do you think, Bonnie?"

"Yeah! Yeah! Can I bring a toy, too, Mom?"

"All right, but just one."

Bonnie ran over to the shelf and grabbed her Totoro doll.

Mom laughed. "I tell her to bring just one toy, and she chooses the biggest one in the house."

"Let's go, Bonnie!"

The three humans left the bedroom, closing the door behind them.

Jessie stood up and walked across the bed towards the dresser. The other toys headed in that direction, too.

"What's up there, guys?" Slinky asked, unable to see from the floor.

"I think it's a wolf," Buzz said.

"But it's tan, not gray," Woody said. "Aren't coyotes the tan ones?"

Sitting on the dresser was a golden-tan wild dog, its head tilted back and mouth parted as though it was howling at the moon. The fur on its chest was white, and its eyes were solid black.

Jessie jumped over to the dresser. "I think it's made of clay," she said, touching its side. "A ceramic."

"It doesn't seem like anyone's home," Buzz observed as he and Woody joined her on the dresser.

"Mom said it wasn't a toy," Dolly said.

"Neither was the lawn gnome, back at Andy's house," Hamm pointed out.

But the wolf remained silent and still, and the toys shrugged and moved on to other activities.

"Does anyone want to play Candy Land?" Peatrice called.

Buzz paused before he jumped off the dresser. Jessie hadn't moved from the ceramic wolf's side.

"Are you coming, Jessie?" he asked.

"I don't think it's just inanimate, Buzz," she said.

"What makes you say that?" Buzz walked back to her.

"Well, think about the lawn gnome. Besides, all toys start out inanimate." Jessie said.

"We do?"

Jessie nodded. "We just don't remember it. When Al brought in the Prospector, he didn't move or say anything. But I talked to him for a while, and eventually he responded. He remembered everything from the store, but not that he had been, well, not alive."

Buzz thought about it. "I guess it makes sense," he said. "Except that it didn't happen to me, or the other Buzz at Al's Toy Barn."

Jessie shrugged. "It might be because, as a battery-powered action figure, you were pre-programmed, or something."

She sat down beside the wolf. "Hi," she said to it. "I'm Jessie. Welcome to Bonnie's room. You need a name… Your fur looks like sand—I'll call you Sandy, okay? You know, I've never met someone made of clay before."

While Jessie kept talking to the wolf, Buzz jumped back over to the bed and explained Jessie's theory to Woody and Dolly.

Dolly nodded. "Yeah, that's how it was when Bonnie got Buttercup. If she played with someone right away, then they woke up, but Mom got Buttercup while Bonnie was at Sunnyside, so we managed to wake him early."

"Whenever Andy got a toy, he played with it right away," Woody remembered. "So being interacted with brings you to life?"

"Something like that," Dolly said. "Bonnie helped make me, so she was talking to me from the start. I think it's also why we freeze on instinct when humans show up."

Jessie waved at them from the dresser, still talking to the wolf. They came over to her.

"I think he heard me," she said. "I thought I saw him blink. Did you hear me, Sandy? I know it's strange here, and not like the store, but we'll have lots of fun. All of my friends are here. Buzz and Woody and Bullseye…"

The wolf stirred, lowering its head and shifting a leg.

"Sandy?" Jessie said.

The wolf turned to look at her.

"Yes," it said, trying out its voice. "You—Jessie?"

"Yes," Jessie said. "My name is Jessie."

"Wow," Woody said.

Sandy jumped, realizing there were others there for the first time.

"It's okay," Jessie said. "These are some of my friends."

"I'm Buzz Lightyear, and this is Woody and Dolly," Buzz said, holding out a hand. "Pleased to meet you."

"I…I…" Sandy stammered, backing away slightly.

"Be gentle," Jessie muttered to her friends. "He's never had to talk to anyone before."

Sandy glanced around the room, taking in everything. This room was small compared to the store, but it was much more colorful. He walked over to the edge of the dresser and looked down."

Realizing how high above the floor he was, he yelped and backed away very quickly, bumping into Jessie and yelping again.

"Easy, easy," Jessie said. "Nothing's going to hurt you."

"W-why are we so high up?" Sandy asked.

"This is the dresser," Jessie explained. "Bonnie's mom put you up here. It's easy to get down. Or, we could just jump over to the bed. Let me show you—"

"No!" Sandy exclaimed in alarm, staring at the gap between the dresser and the bed.

"…Okay, if you don't want to right now, that's all right," Jessie said. "But it's lots of fun down there… Well, we can have lots of fun up here, too!"

Sandy relaxed slightly, smiling at Jessie, and then at Woody, Buzz, and Dolly, who smiled back at their new companion.


	2. Fears

Over the course of the next few days, Jessie managed to make sure that Sandy always had company up on the dresser. The wolf was very shy at first, but slowly became more comfortable around Bonnie's toys. This morning, he was learning to play Go Fish with Jessie, Woody, and Chuckles, which was interesting in itself because Sandy's paws were unable to hold the cards. They managed by bringing a small book up to the dresser and having him balance the cards against it.

"Do you have any eights?" Woody asked Jessie, who frowned in pretend irritation as she handed over the pair of cards.

"It's your turn, Sandy," she said.

Sandy looked at his cards, and grinned.

"Do you have any eights, Woody?" he asked.

"You're kidding!" Woody cried, handing over the triple eights. Sandy nudged his own eight over the book.

"So, now I keep them, right?" he asked.

"Right," Jessie confirmed. "Nice job, Sandy!"

"I like this game," Sandy said.

"You would," said Chuckles. "That's the third time you've gotten all four!"

"If we were on the floor, we could play with a larger group," Woody pointed out. Sandy shook his head.

"Your turn, Chuckles," he said, quickly changing the subject.

"He has a point, Sandy," Jessie said. "Why don't we—"

"Could we just keep playing?" Sandy cut her off. Jessie looked a little surprised. True, Sandy had expressed no interest in leaving the dresser, but he wasn't usually so forceful about it. Shrugging it off for now, they went back to the card game.

XXX

"Hey, Buzz," Jessie said. "Do you want to come and hang out with Sandy and me?"

"No thanks," Buzz replied. "Maybe later, okay?"

"Okay."

The cowgirl walked off towards the dresser. Buzz watched her walk off, almost deciding to follow her anyways, but didn't, turning his back on the dresser.

"Why don't you join them?" Woody asked, walking up to him. "You've said no every time she's invited you."

Buzz shrugged. "I just don't feel like it, I guess."

Truthfully, he really wasn't sure why he didn't want to be with Sandy and Jessie. There wasn't anything not to like about the wolf, and he absolutely loved spending time with the cowgirl.

But when they were _together…_ and Jessie had done almost nothing but hang out with Sandy since he'd first arrived…

"I think that Jessie's being really nice to Sandy," Woody said. "Making sure he feels welcome, and all that."

"Of course. Make sure that the new guy feels welcome. That's the right thing to do," Buzz said, sounding to Woody like he was trying to convince himself of the fact.

Buzz glanced up at the dresser, and his stomach clenched at the sight of Jessie sitting with her arm draped over Sandy's back.

XXX

"That feels good," Sandy said as Jessie stroked his fur. The cowgirl smiled mischievously and moved her fingers to his belly.

"No, wait, that tickles! Stop!" The wolf's protests were drowned out by both of their laughter.

Eventually, they settled down again.

"Do you ever get scared, Jessie?" Sandy asked suddenly.

"Sure, I do," Jessie replied. "Everyone gets scared sometimes."

Sandy looked up at her skeptically. "I don't think you're afraid of anything," he said. "You, and everyone else in this room."

"Why do you say that?"

The wolf shrugged.

"I'll tell you a secret," Jessie said, lowering her voice and leaning closer to his ear. "You want to know what I fear most of all?"

Sandy nodded.

"Being stuck in the dark, with no way out," Jessie said. "Also, I'm afraid of being abandoned."

"Why would someone want to abandon you?"

Jessie shrugged. "Kids grow up," she said. "My first kid, Emily, donated me when she got older. Then, I was put into storage."

"What's 'storage'?"

"I was sealed into a little box and left in a dark room for a very, very long time."

"That's _terrible,_" Sandy said, placing his head on her lap. "And you didn't have anyone to talk to?"

"Not at first," said Jessie. "Eventually, Bullseye and I figured out that the other was there. He could hear me talking, and I could hear him tapping the side of his box. It wasn't quite as bad after that."

They sat in silence for a while.

"But you're not afraid of breaking," Sandy said softly.

"Breaking…?" Suddenly, the pieces of the problem fit together in Jessie's head. "Sandy, did you ever see someone fall off the shelf at the store?"

The wolf closed his eyes.

"Kids would come in to choose one of us to paint," he said. "They weren't always careful. If you were hit, you fell. If you fell, you _broke. _And if you broke, then you got thrown away…"

Jessie scratched Sandy behind the ears, which made him feel a little better.

That explained his reluctance to get off the dresser—he didn't think he'd land safely. Jessie had nothing to worry about, as she was made of cloth and plastic. But Sandy was clay…

_I bet he can do it, _Jessie thought. _After all, he can move around now. It's the mental obstacle more than anything else. He has to face his fear, or else he'll always be paranoid._

"Sandy," she said determinedly. "We're getting you off this dresser."

**A.N.: **Many apologies for taking so long, and for putting up such a short chapter… I've been suffering writer's block and a bad habit of starting too many stories at once! But that's no excuse. I'll do the best I can, okay?


	3. To the Bed!

"Operation: Floor", as Jessie called, seemed simple enough. Step one was getting Sandy comfortable with jumping over to the bed, a relatively small gap. Next, they would try to get him slowly down the dresser from drawer to drawer. Easier said than done—Sandy's fear was deeply ingrained in his clay.

After Bonnie and her mom had left for Sunnyside, the other toys spread the pillows from Bonnie's bed onto the floor between the bed and the dresser.

"Not that we think you're going to fall," Jessie reassured Sandy as she explained the plan. "But it might make you feel a bit more at ease with the whole thing."

"Maybe," the wolf said, watching the procedure on the floor. Totoro sat down in the middle of the pillows, grinning upwards and holding his arms out in a gesture to show that he would be ready to catch Sandy if necessary. Sandy smiled back at the large doll in thanks.

"You see," Jessie said. "You're already much better with looking down than you were when you first got here."

Sandy smiled at her. "Yeah, I guess I am!"

"Okay, we're all set down here!" Woody called up from the floor.

For a moment, Sandy's eyes were wild with alarm, but he shoved it away determinedly.

"I'm ready, too," he said.

"Good." Jessie walked over to the edge of the dresser. "Now, you've seen all of us jump this far, even those smaller than you. You shouldn't have any trouble. Just bend your knees…" she demonstrated. "And jump!"

The cowgirl easily lifted herself across the gap, through the air, and onto the bed.

"Now it's your turn!" she called.

Sandy hesitated. Now that he was actually faced with leaving the dresser, it seemed just as daunting as it had the first day.

"Come on, Sandy!" someone called from the floor. "You can do this!"

Others quickly joined in with cheering him on. It felt good to have their faith in him, but it also made him a different kind of nervous. What if he let them down?

Buzz watched from the other side of the room, not cheering, unnoticed by everyone whose focus was on Sandy. He felt like a horrible person for not wanting the wolf to leave the dresser, but that didn't make him any more enthusiastic about the concept.

Sandy backed up a few steps, and then threw himself forward, pushing off of the edge of the dresser. For a few, nerve-wracking instants he was in thin air—and then he hit the bed and stumbled, nearly knocking Jessie over as she steadied him.

"You did it!" she exclaimed. The rest of the toys cheered.

Sandy stared blankly for a moment, and then his face split into a huge grin. "I did it! I did it!" he joined in the cheering, excitedly glancing back at the dresser, which was no longer a limitation.

Jessie threw her arms around his neck.

Buzz turned away, a small part of his mind wondering why the rest of him was so angry.

XXX

Getting back to the dresser had been no problem at all, and by the time Bonnie got home, Sandy was jumping back and forth from dresser to bed as though he'd been doing it his whole life.

"Tomorrow, we try going down, all right?" Jessie said before she hurried back to the toy box at the sound of Bonnie's footsteps.

"All right," Sandy agreed. Part of him was still afraid, but at the moment he felt on top of the world.


	4. Success and Disaster

Sandy eyed the distance between the top of the dresser and the partially-opened drawer beneath him. It wasn't too far, just about his length from nose to tail, but it was downward. The other toys had positioned the drawers so that they formed a sort of staircase to the floor.

"It's nice and soft," Jessie assured Sandy, patting the clothes inside the top drawer. "Just go for it. Don't think about it."

"How do you do something without thinking about it?" Sandy asked, confused.

"Well, some people act without thinking all the time," Jessie replied.

"Good point." The wolf looked past the drawers and down to the floor. The only other toys that he could see watching him were the peas, the aliens, and Totoro.

"Where is everybody?" he asked.

"Oh, they'll be around," Jessie said mysteriously. "Hey, if you want, I'll catch you."

"I'm a lot heavier than you," Sandy pointed out.

"Not by much! Besides, I'm stronger than I look." The cowgirl flexed her arms, and Sandy laughed.

"Here goes nothing," he muttered. Jessie held out her arms, and Sandy closed his eyes and took a step out into thin air…

He let out a yelp as he fell on top of Jessie and the pair of them collapsed onto the folded clothes in the drawer.

The few spectators clapped as they got up, Sandy rather shakily.

"N-Nice catch," he stammered.

Jessie laughed. "Sorry," she said. "But you're down one drawer now. Let's work on getting up again, just to be on the safe side."

And the morning went on, down a drawer, up a drawer, down two drawers, up two drawers. By the time that there was only one drawer between the wolf and the floor, most of the toys were out watching. But he hadn't seen where they had come from, so busily was he practicing.

Up four drawers, down five drawers, and his feet touched the carpeted floor to thunderous applause!

"Yay, Sandy!"

"You did it! You did it!"

"Welcome to the floor, buddy!"

Jessie threw her arms around his neck. Sandy was a bit overwhelmed by all of the attention. He'd never been at eye level with so many other toys before! But it felt kind of nice, too.

The toys brought him with them, under the bed, and Sandy's eyes widened. Bonnie's toys had turned the underside of the bed into a party room, with paper decorations everywhere!

"It's your floorcoming party!" Jessie explained.

"So, _this _is where everyone was!" Sandy gasped. "You all did this for me?"

"Of course we did!" said Dolly. "It's great to have you down here at last, Sandy!"

Sandy grinned. "It's great to be down here!"

Lively chatter quickly filled the air. Someone had turned on the CD player, and everyone began to dance to the happy music.

Well, _almost_ everyone. Buzz stood by himself off to the side, silently watching. Woody noticed his friend's isolation and approached him.

"Is something wrong, Buzz?" he asked.

The space ranger motioned towards Sandy, who was dancing with Jessie.

"I know that I should be happy for him," he said. "But, seeing _him_ with _her_, I can't help but wish that he'd just stayed up on that dresser, or, even better, not come here at all."

Unfortunately, that happened to be the moment when a certain phenomenon that is common to parties occurred, in which all general conversation stops at just the right moment to cause someone to be the only person talking. As a result, the last seventeen words of Buzz's sentence had been heard by all.

Sandy was staring at Buzz from across the dance floor, agape.

"You…!" was all that he could manage to choke out in a very upset voice. It was, after all, the first time that he had ever been the recipient of an insult.

The ceramic wolf turned and ran away, out from under the bed and out of the door of Bonnie's bedroom.

"Buzz, how could you?" Jessie said, looking both shocked and angry. She ran off after Sandy. Buzz hesitated, but then ran after her, and then Woody after him.

XXX

"Sandy!" Jessie called. She couldn't see the wolf. Maybe he was around the corner, by the staircase?

"Jessie!" Buzz grabbed her arm. "Let me explain—!"

"I don't want to hear your explanations!" Jessie snarled, snatching her arm away. "I didn't think that you had it in you to be so mean, Buzz! The guy's been in this house for barely a week, he's spent the last few days working to overcome his fears, and the least you could do is be supportive!"

"I know, Jessie!" Buzz said. "It's just that… Well…"

"It's just that what?" Jessie challenged. "Cat got your tongue, spaceman?"

Buzz found himself to be hopelessly tongue-tied.

"Hey, guys!" Woody called, running up to them. "Guys, we need to get back to Bonnie's room, she'll be getting back from Sunnyside any minute now!"

As if in response to his announcement, the toys heard the front door slam, and pairs of little feet running around, approaching the staircase.

"Come on!" Woody urged.

Jessie shook her head. "We have to find Sandy!"

"He'll be fine. Let's just—!"

"Let's go to my room, Mary!" Bonnie said. "Come on!"

The three toys ducked behind a side table and lay limp as the two little girls ran up the stairs. Sandy, who had crept out from his hiding place in the bathroom to listen to Jessie and Buzz's arguing, came into view around the corner.

Jessie looked up and saw him. "Sandy!" she hissed.

Sandy didn't hear her, but he did hear Bonnie and Mary's hurried footfalls, and he panicked, freezing into his inanimate state just as they ran around the corner—

—and Bonnie's foot kicked the ceramic wolf, which flew through the air and slammed against the wall before falling back to the floor.

"Oh!" Bonnie exclaimed as she stopped and bent down over the wolf. "Oh, _no!_" she wailed. "Mom!"

The little girl turned and ran back downstairs, calling for her mother, her friend following her.

Jessie sprang to her feet and ran across the hallway to where Sandy lay, snapped in two down the middle.

XXX

**A.N.: **...!


	5. Broken

"Sandy, Sandy!" Jessie sobbed, stroking his head and staring in dismay at the incomprehensible gap between the wolf's front and back. There was no response from Sandy, who had gone stiff from shock.

An equally upset voice, followed by footsteps, sounded from the room below.

"Jessie!" Woody placed a hand on her shoulder. "Jessie, we have to go, now, before Mom gets up here! Come on, Buzz."

At the sound of the space ranger's name, Jessie whirled around to face him.

"You!" she wailed. "This is _your _fault! _Your fault!_" The cowgirl burst into tears and wrapped her arms around Sandy's neck.

_My fault… _Her words stung Buzz, because he knew them to be true. His jealousy had driven Sandy from Bonnie's room and under the child's feet, and it had driven away Jessie, too, and they both were hurt, even though only one of them had been broken.

He was vaguely aware of Woody gently pulling Jessie away from the wolf, saying encouraging things as he led her back into Bonnie's room. Through an odd haze he knew that he couldn't go back and show his face in there. He turned and walked into another room and sat down with his back to the wall, listening.

"You can fix it, Mom, right?"

"I don't know, Bonnie. We could try gluing it… You shouldn't leave your things lying around like that!"

"But I didn't! I don't know how it got out here!"

"Well, it didn't walk out into the hallway on its own."

Buzz placed his head in his hands. _Of course he didn't. I chased him out here._

_It should be me who's broken…_

XXX

"He's all right."

The entire room seemed to breathe a sigh of relief at Dolly's report.

"You saw him?" Jessie asked, but softly, so as to not wake Bonnie. It was in the middle of the night now.

"Even better," said Dolly. "I spoke with him. He couldn't move, because he wanted to make sure that the glue sets, but he's fine. He'll probably be back tomorrow."

The rag doll glanced around the room, and at all of the present toys.

"Buzz isn't back yet? Where is he?" she asked.

Jessie frowned. "Who cares?" she snapped, turning and walking back over to the toy box. Everyone gradually moved back to their places for the night.

"He's in the bathroom," Woody told Dolly. "I went out there earlier, but he wouldn't talk to me."

"Mhmm…"

Dolly walked out of the bedroom again, this time turning into the bathroom. There was Buzz, crouched between the door and the wall, so that none of the humans in the house would easily find him and take him back to Bonnie's room.

"Hey, spaceman," said Dolly. There was no response.

"Sandy wanted me to tell you that he's all right," the doll continued. "He asked that I tell you specifically, that he was all right."

More silence.

"That's all," said Dolly. "You should come back to the bedroom. A bathroom's no place for a toy, unless you're a rubber ducky, you know what I'm saying?"

She left the bathroom, and Buzz looked up once she was gone.

_Why would Sandy want to tell me that he was all right?_ he wondered. _I'm the one who… Well, I won't find out by staying in here._

He sighed, stood up, and silently followed Dolly back into Bonnie's room. The doll didn't acknowledge his presence, although she knew that he was there. He preferred it that way, anyway.


	6. A Real Party

"Now, are you going to be careful with it this time, Bonnie?"

"Uh-huh! I promise!"

Jessie waited until the humans' footsteps had died away, and then she jumped out of the toy box. She ran over to the dresser and climbed up. No one was there!

"Sandy…?"

"…And here I was, thinking that I'd save you a trip by coming down first!" a voice called from the floor.

Jessie whirled around. Sandy was sitting by the toy box, grinning up at her.

"Sandy!" the cowgirl squealed. She hurried back down to the floor and ran up to the wolf, grabbing him in a hug.

"You're all right!" she exclaimed.

"Of course, I'm all right," Sandy replied. "A bit cracked, but good as new, nonetheless."

Jessie looked at Sandy's side. There was a crack there, stretching from the back of his neck to his lower belly.

Sandy shrugged. "I kinda like it," he said. "Hey, how about we have that party now?"

"Um, sure! Okay!"

Jessie ran off to round up the other toys. Sandy glanced around the bedroom, stopping when he saw Buzz, who was sitting in the doorway of the closet. The wolf walked over to him.

"Hey, Buzz," he said.

"What do you want?" the space ranger asked.

"I want to talk to you," Sandy replied.

There was a long silence.

"I'm sorry," Buzz said. "For everything."

Sandy raised an eyebrow. "You think that _you _need to apologize? To _me_?"

"Of course I do!" said Buzz. "I was cruel to you, without any reason! What I said about you was horrible."

"If anyone needs to apologize, then it's me," said the wolf.

"You…what?" Buzz was confused. "What did _you _do?"

"I took what you said in the worst possible way," Sandy explained. "Look, I did a lot of thinking while Dad was fixing me up, and, well… I know why you said it."

Buzz stared. Sandy grinned.

"Did you think that Jessie never talked to me about you?" he asked. "I don't know much about people yet, but I could tell that there was a bond between the two of you, even though you never came up to the dresser. It was my mistake that I didn't try to talk to you before it came to all of this."

"So you…? You and Jessie…? You aren't…?"

Sandy shook his head. "Nope. She's my best friend, I think, and she's very kind, but that's all."

It was like an incredible weight had been taken off of Buzz's shoulders. He smiled at Sandy.

"Thank you," he said.

"Hey, any time," said the wolf. "Don't be so hard on yourself about things, okay?"

Buzz nodded. He looked out across the bedroom floor, to where Jessie and Mr. Pricklepants were setting up the CD player. The cowgirl had been watching them, but she turned away as soon as she saw him looking.

"She hates me now," Buzz sighed. "She probably wishes that it was me who got broken."

"I wouldn't be so sure," said Sandy. "I think, if it had been you who was broken, Woody never would have been able to drag her away from your body."

"You really think so?"

Sandy nodded. "Give me ten minutes. I'll see what I can do."

XXX

Sandy approached Jessie, who was just pushing the "play" button on the CD player.

"Let's chat for a bit," he said.

"Okay," Jessie replied.

The two of them walked over to the base of the dresser and sat down.

"So, what were you and Buzz talking about?" Jessie asked, trying to sound indifferent.

"Oh, not much," Sandy said with a shrug. "He's really been beating himself up."

Jessie frowned. "Good," she said. "He should be."

"Do you really think that?"

"What do you mean? Look at what he's _done _to you!"

"Yeah," said the wolf. "And?"

"And? And he's thoughtless and mean and… And…"

_Why is it so difficult to insult him?_

"You miss him, don't you?" said Sandy. "You haven't hung out with him since I got here."

"Yeah, I haven't…"

"He misses you, too, you know."

Jessie hesitated.

XXX

Sandy watched the space ranger and cowgirl walk off, hand in hand, and he smiled to himself. The wolf turned around and went to join the other toys on the dance floor. It was time to have a _real_ party!


End file.
